by Scott King
Stone shrapnel and dust blew through the air, and when it faded, Kane stood straddled over him. "I was worried you wouldn't show up to play,"
"I had to get something to eat first," he said. "Ever tried grilled yucca? You should."
"You can't distract me." She flexed her wrists, and her hands became forked blades.
"You can walk away from this. I want nothing to do with Medrayt or the other dragons. All I want is my old body back."
"And I can't let that happen."
A Greker dart struck Kane in the neck. Her eyes rolled up and she collapsed, landing on Doug. He was too sore to move her, but by shifting his head, he could see a squad of Grekers shuffling out from a sewage grate.
Doug knew what was coming. They would stick him next, and this time there would be no escape. He hoped Alex and Carter were safe.
22
The Arg'Natz
Allsday, 28th of Hearfest, 1162.111
Alex watched the Grekers emerge from the sewers. There were at least as many as there had been at their camp, if not more. Their strangely cute bodies stood out, for in all the time she had spent in Compitum she had never seen a nonhuman walk the streets.
Kane went down, and a moment later, they shot Doug. Alex knew she and Carter would need to act fast if they were going to intervene. "Carter, blast them!"
Carter’s eyes rolled back and he fainted.
Alex felt a prick on her thigh and looked down to see a dart oozing with parpah root. Well that was different. She didn't expect to be hit too. The last time, the Grekers had left both her and Carter alone. Guess she pissed them off with the whole Erediä thing.
The world blurred, but the extract wasn't as fast acting on Alex as it was with the others. She had time to draw her sword and square up her stance.
The Grekers picked up Kane and Doug, dragging the pair toward an open sewer grate.
“Don't touch them," Alex tried to yell, but the words came out jumbled.
The grip on her sword waned. A moment later she heard it rattle on the ground, not realizing she had dropped it.
She crumbled, and only barely managed to bring her arms in front of her face to keep from breaking her nose on the stone road.
The effect of the parpah root wasn't like being asleep. It was more like being sick. She kept seeing and hearing flashes of things. She stirred when the Grekers picked her up. She saw the night sky disappear as she was carried into the sewer, and she vividly remembered being laid in a cart full of hay.
Less than an hour later, the root had worn off completely. She caught glimpses of an underground tunnel and the others bound in the hay beside her. As soon as the Grekers realized she was awake, they shot her with another dose. It wore off even faster.
The fourth time the Grekers attempted to drug Alex, the parpah root it had no affect, and they gave up trying to sedate her. Instead, she was left seated in the cart with hands bound while the others slept in the hay.
The tunnel ended in a cavern with a subterranean river, and the Grekers followed a worn road along its bank. Unable to use the most basic of aglys, the Grekers relied upon flickering torches to light the cavernous spaces. Alex didn't know what the torches were made of, but they lasted a long time and released a sangria-colored smoke that smelled like rotten eggs.
Escape wasn't an option. Sure, she could get away, but it would mean abandoning Carter and Doug. She couldn't do that. Not only did it feel wrong, but she needed Carter to cast the spells to free the dragons.
The first time Alex climbed out of the cart, the Grekers stopped and pointed their spears at her. Alex tried to explain why she had climbed out, but they either didn't care or didn't understand. Instead of worrying about communication problems, she undid her belt, squatted, and took a pee. She shook dry, and from then on, they didn't give her any lip when she decided to stretch her legs.
With no way to tell the passing time and no view of the sky, the days blurred for Alex. Alex figured they were heading somewhere in the Redrock Mountains, but without the stars or daylight, it was impossible to pinpoint where exactly they were or how far they had traveled. If she was right, it meant they were heading east and closer to Kale. But she could be wrong, and for all she knew they were traveling north.
"Where are we going?" She had tried to speak to them several times, but they never responded or acted like they understood. "We going east? North to the Scourge? Where?"
The Grekers pulling the cart stopped. They spoke and then a particularly cherubic Greker with grey whiskers on his cheeks climbed into the hay cart. "You are the one who posed as Erediä?" He stressed every word, dragging out the question in an awkward but understandable manner.
"Yes," Alex said. "You had my friends."
"What do you know of the Scourge?"
Alex must have touched a nerve. But what? Why did the Grekers care if she knew about the Scourge. Everyone knew about it. "It is the wasteland to the north. It once belonged to the lost races."
The Greker said something to his companions, and the cart lurched forward.
"What does the Scourge have to do with anything? Why speak to me now after ignoring me for so long? Why capture me and my friends?"
"Too many questions." The Greker sat down in the hay, leaning his back against the frame of the cart. "I shall explain, but in my way. I will tell you the story of Bakero."
Bakero shuffled the coals fueling the stone oven. The heat singed the whiskers on her cheeks. A good sign, soon it would be hot enough for the dough. She couldn't allow a single thing to go wrong at the meeting with House Fengar.
She reached for the bellows, only intending to give it a slight push, but her hand passed through it. She lost her balance and toppled to the floor. Instead of landing on the hard cherrywood, she fell through it, as if it were made of mist.
The entire mansion became translucent as did the fountain in the front of the estate and the town houses farther down the street. There was a dull flash of light, and everything vanished. The ground remained, but all the vegetation was gone, and a sickly, flaxen crust, like burned dried oats, had replaced the dirt.
Her first thought was that she had died and that this dead world was Yorndrak, but none of the tales she had heard ever described the spirit world like this.
In that moment of ponderment, when Bakero could not decide if she was alive or dead, she saw The Silver Lady.
Bakero knew who she was for all know The Silver Lady in the same way our instinct tells us what is up or down. The lady's skin was like a mirror's surface, and she was as angelic as the legends said.
"Little one." Her voice was music, so sweet Bakero forgot to respond. The Silver Lady snapped her fingers, breaking Bakero from her trance. "Pay attention."
"Yes m'lady." To keep from being distracted again, she bowed her head and locked her eyes on the gritty soil.
"You must leave this place. If you do not, your entire race is doomed."
"Is this one of Yorndrak's rings?"
"You have not left Elderealm. The northern lands are what have left. If you wish to survive, you must flee south. Seek Agnar. It shall be your salvation."
Bakero made the mistake of looking up at The Silver Lady to ask a question, and in doing so, she became lost in the lady's eyes. They had an infinite depth and twinkled with starlight. The lady smiled at her in the way a mother smiles at an infant mesmerized by a shiny button.
From within her flowery robes, The Silver Lady withdrew a curved dagger. The hilt was bent to match the arc of the blade, so the entire thing formed a perfect crescent. Its inner edge had jagged teeth, while the outer bit was smooth and glistened in the light emanating from The Silver Lady's skin.
"Hold out your hand." The Silver Lady pressed the teeth of the danger against Bakero's wrist. A bracelet of blood soaked into her thin coat of fur.
The Silver Lady spun the dagger around and placed the pommel into Baker's quivering palm. The lady pressed the dagger along her own wrist, drawing blood.
Bak
ero's arm hurt, but only for a moment, and the pain was followed by a rush of energy. Her wrist tingled, and when she examined her own wounds, she saw they had closed, leaving no scar.
"You have been given the Argnot kot Natzul kæt. Use the gift wisely and lead your people."
Like the city of Zora, The Silver Lady vanished. The only proof of her visit was the odd dagger left at Bakero's feet.
Bakero became the first Arg'Natz." The Grekers spoke in such a hushed tone that Alex had to lean closer to hear. "She led my people out of the Scourge."
"Interesting," Alex said. "I've never heard a story of what the Scourge was like, but it doesn't explain why you've taken us or drugged my friends."
"We shall reach Agnar. Until we do, hold your tongue. Speaking of things that are considered sacred could provoke negative repercussions. You are lucky you have not been killed for impersonating the Erediä."
Alex had been to enough state dinners to understand. The wrong thing done at the right time could lead to death or worse. She had once seen peace talks to end trade sanctions between Kelsam and Ralk fall apart because a fork was thrown in the trash during a dinner course. Dozens were killed. It was tragic.
As much as Alex wanted to demand more answers from the Greker, she respected the wisdom of keeping quiet. It was a good thing she was the one awake and not Carter. "I get your meaning."
The Greker nodded and leaned back in the hay, taking a nap. Alex envied his ability to fall asleep so quickly and wondered if it was a racial thing, an elderly thing, or simply the way he was.
Less than two hours later, an emerald light flooded the tunnel. At first, Alex thought something was wrong with her eyes. Maybe she had been underground for so long that daylight seemed off, but as the tunnel opened into a huge, underground cavern, she realized that what she saw was not the sun–or at least not the normal sun. Hundreds of stories up and floating dead center in the cavern was a ball of light. It was too bright to stare at, but in quick glances, she saw that the artificial sun had patches of brighter and darker spots, which flowed across its surface like oil failing to mix with water.
Having no more need for the torches, the Grekers doused them in the river and stacked them in the back of the cart. The noise woke the elder Greker. He sat up, looked around and crawled over Doug to stand next to Alex.
The cavern under the green sun stretched, so far that she couldn't see the other side. Red vines thicker than tree trunks lined the walls, and from beneath their bushy, turquoise colored leaves, sprouted pale flowers as big as Alex's head. Grekers scrambled up and down the vines plucking scaly looking fruits.
"Parpah fruit," the old greker said. "Good for medicine and for eating."
Past the vines, were fields of wheat or maybe barley–she always got the two mixed. There were several hut-like cottages made from smooth stones, and in the distance, near a kink in the river were the outskirts of a city. This must be Agnar.
The buildings were slanted, coming to points at odd angles. Though she had expected them to be stubby and designed for Grekers, they were instead open and large. At the heart of the city was a steep pyramid, higher than any other structure. A disc rested upon its top, drowning a section of the city in permanent shade.
It was into one of these darker areas that the Grekers led the wooden cart, and the farther they traveled, the larger the crowd grew that had formed around it. Children, elders, and every age in between chittered. Most spoke in their odd language, but every now and then Alex recognized a word like Compitum or Arg'Natz.
They stopped the cart in front of a bland building, and the onlookers kept their distance. One by one, the Grekers picked up Kane, Doug, and Carter and carried them inside. When it was Alex's turn, the older Greker offered her a hand, helping her out of the cart, then led her inside the building.
The interior walls were cream-colored and lacked any design, but the floor sparkled, and golden stripes ran through it, in a grid pattern. Alex's companions lay separated, sprawled unconscious on the floor. The air between them had a shimmery quality, like heat rising off stone on a hot summer day.
"Please walk forward," the Greker said.
"Why? What is this?" Alex asked.
The Greker prodded her forward. "Nothing will harm you."
She still had the option of fighting. Overcoming the old Greker would take maybe two well-placed strikes, but Carter and Doug were still out cold, and she couldn't defend the building from the dozens of Grekers outside. Feeling like she had no option, she walked onto the strange floor. It sunk under her feet, and she had second thoughts.
Alex stepped backward, trying to retreat, but her rear slammed against a wall. She didn't see anything but a soft shimmer of the air. She kicked and felt for a way around the invisible barrier.
"What is happening?" She banged on the wall, and with each thump, she could feel it hum with a surge of energy.
"The Domo will explain all." The old Greker turned to leave and glanced over his shoulder one final time. "May The Silver Lady watch over you."
Alex kicked the wall. She punched it. She rammed her shoulder into it. It had to be some sort of magic. She hated magic. Letting out a long sigh, she slouched against the wall and let her feet slide forward until she landed on her butt. There was nothing she could do but wait.
23
Family Matters
Eldsday, 39th of Hearfest, 1162.111
The waiting took a day, and to Alex's dismay, Kane was the first to awaken. The shapeshifter banged on her magic walls while shouting and screaming, but the barriers that imprisoned them somehow allowed sounds to enter and blocked them from getting out. That meant Alex could put her back to Kane and not think twice about the assassin.
Doug was the next to wake up, and his reaction was a bit odd. He looked around, wrinkled his nose, and then lay down. He didn't try to speak or test the barriers.
Carter did not take their imprisonment so gracefully. Upon awakening and finding himself trapped, he cast a spell. She assumed it was the same one that allowed him to summon the wind because one moment Carter stood in the center of his cell, and in the next, he flew upward and was plastered against the ceiling. He must have smacked his head because he fell back to the floor and didn't move for over an hour.
The second time Carter awoke, he ran through a series of agyls. There were puffs of smoke, streaks of lightning, and what looked like rain, but nothing the boy did was able to break through the invisible walls holding them.
In what felt like evening–she wasn't sure because the constant glow of the green sun meant it always looked like day–a crew of Grekers brought refreshments. Jugs filled with wine and metal trays were passed through the one-way walls. They trays were circular and had divots filled with earth-tone-colored mush. A spongy flat bread was stacked in the center.
Not sure what to do with the food or if it was safe to eat, Alex looked to the others. Carter acted as confused as she felt. Kane was using the bread as a brush and painting the walls of her cell with what looked like a series of stakes with Greker heads on them.
Doug propped a piece of the flat bread onto three of his fingers, and then pinched a pile of mush, picking it up. He folded the bread over once more and ate the bound wrap in one bite.
Alex mimicked his action, but with her smaller hands, it was harder to deal with the flat bread. The bread had a sour taste that balanced the spiciness of the mush. It was odd, but tasted nice. She quickly finished off her whole tray.
The wine was similar to a Tull Gold with a light feel and a hint of citrus in the aftertaste. Not sure when the Grekers would bring more to drink, she took only a few sips, intending to ration it.
Alex ran her tongue over chapped lips. She was dehydrated already, and anything to help hydrate her was a good thing, so she took another swig of the wine, a big swig. Not enough to make her cheeks flush, but enough to help quench her thirst. Of course, it made her fully aware that she hadn't used the privy in hours.
Alex waved, getting Dou
g's attention. He acted as if he knew this place, and if that was the case, maybe he knew how to call the guards. When he looked her way, she mimed taking a pee. He pointed at the golden strips in the floor and stepped on them in a specific looking pattern. The instant he finished, the walls for his cell turned opaque. A moment, later they reappeared.
She watched him do it two more times and then was able to do it herself. When her walls lost transparency, a bench with a hole in it rose from the floor. She relieved her bladder and then stood there, enjoying the sense of privacy. Not wanting the others to think she was doing something other than peeing, soon she repeated the step pattern, and her walls once more became see-through.
Carter's cell spazzed. It flicked from clear to solid, and between the flashes, it looked as if he were dancing. Finally, he smiled and traced an agyl.
"Can you hear me?" he asked.
"Oh my goodness, yes!" Alex hopped up and down with excitement.
Carter pointed to his ears. "I can't hear you. This is only one way. Give me a moment, and I should be able to fix yours too."
It took a half hour, but when done, Carter had disabled the sound blocking on all the cells. Alex had hoped he could pull down the barriers completely, but he said the walls trapping them were too complex and that only through a loophole in the system, was he able to take down the sound barriers.
Carter had lots of questions for Alex. Doug seemed to not care, and Kane kept her mouth shut. Alex answered what she could, and when finished, she decided it was time to get some answers from Doug. "How did you know how to open the privy?"
Doug cracked an eyelid and squinted at her. "I've been here before."
"How? When?" Carter asked.
"Long time ago," Doug said. "And if this is anything like my last visit, you all should get comfortable. There is no way to escape from here."
